Slideshow: The Common Causes of Downtime

1stWarning monitors your website, email and other services from stations around the world to ensure that you are alerted as soon as possible.

When downtime occurs, we can alert multiple contacts via a variety of communication types. We also support unlimited alert escalations to alternate contacts.

Your Email Server has Been Blacklisted

Upon receiving reports of unwanted or unsolicited email, several block lists will add your email server to their list. Email from your server
will then be rejected by subscribers to the block list. This can occur even if no one has ever reported spam from your server, because some of the block lists list expanded ranges
of I.P. addresses, which can contain your email server.

1stWarning monitors all the major, reputable block list providers and will alert you if you appear on one.

Your Site has Been Put on a Domain Block List

Much like email server block listing, upon receiving reports of unwanted or unsolicited email, your site can become added to a block list of domains. Emails sent with this site in
the content are then discarded or bounced.

1stWarning monitors all the major, reputable domain block list providers and will alert you if you appear on one.

Your Email Server Becomes an Open Relay

Open relays allow email to be sent through an email server by anyone. This can occur by an exploit or accidently by changing a simple setting in your email server's
configuration. If your server becomes an open relay, your email server will quickly be hijacked and start sending as many spam messages as possible. Then, your email
server will then quickly be blocklisted and your ISP could shut down your account.

1stWarning will alert you if any of your email servers becomes an open relay.

Your Site has Been Listed as a Phishing Site

All major browsers support blocking access to sites listed as a phishing site. It is possible to be listed based on a spammer referencing your domain on emails.

1stWarning
continuously reads the major phising site listing used by the major browsers and alerts you if you are on the list.

Your SSL Certificate is About to Expire or Is Invalid

Don't forget to renew your SSL certificates! However, if you do, 1stwarning will alert you in the days prior to your certificate expiring.

In addition, 1stWarning will monitor the validity of your certificates to ensure they are functioning properly.

Your DNS Servers are not Functioning Correctly

Slow responding or malfunctioning DNS servers can cause your site to be down to new users, while it may appear to you that your site is operational. This is becauseyour site's
DNS information has already been cached on your device, but not for new visitors.

1stWarning monitors your name servers to ensure they are responding and measures the response time
globally. You may optionally set an alert if your DNS setting change unexpectedly.

Your Firewall Settings Have Changed, Allowing Unknown Exploits

If your firewall is allowing access through unknown or unnecessary ports, it exposes your servers to exploits.

1stWarning provides the ability for you to list acceptable ports and will alert you if any others become open.

Your Site has Been Hacked or Redirected

Your site content may be changed, or your site may be unexpectedly redirected to another site. 1stWarning allows you to set up content matching for phrases that must exist on your
site or an alert is issued.

Also, you may optionally set an alert if your site begins redirecting to another site.

Your Site's Performance has Degraded

Even if your site is up, it may not be performing at acceptable levels. There is significant visitor abandonment on sites with slow performance. 1stWarning provides
a way to set your minimum acceptable page load time and alerts you if the site does not perform to that level. DNS resolution and connect times are also tracked.

1stWarning will alert you to performance degradation based on your testing criteria.